As a random-accessible, attachable-detachable recording medium, a digital versatile disc (DVD) has been used for years. In recent years, a disc-shaped recording medium that has a larger record capacity than the DVD and another disc-shaped recording medium that is smaller than the DVD have been developed.
Such recording mediums that contain content of video and audio such as movies, drams, music concerts have been sold as sell packages. In these cell packages, a plurality of audio and subtitle streams of different languages can be recorded as one program of content. For example, in the DVD video standard, a video stream, a plurality of audio streams of different languages, and a plurality of subtitle streams of different languages are multiplexed as one Moving Pictures Experts Group2 (MPEG) program stream.
Movie content created in a foreign country (for example, United States) may contain a plurality of audio streams of different languages, which are for example an audio stream of English as an original language and an audio stream of Japanese as a Japanese dubbed audio stream, and a plurality of subtitle streams, which are a subtitle stream of English and a subtitle stream of Japanese.
In the DVD video standard, when movie content contains a plurality of audio streams of different languages and a plurality of subtitle streams of different languages, the user can select streams to be reproduced. For example, the user may be able to select an audio stream of a Japanese dubbed version and a subtitle stream of an English version. As another example, the user may able to select an audio stream of a Japanese dubbed version and select no subtitle stream.
A DVD player apparatus has an automatic selection function that allows a priority language to be initially set as language preset information and an audio stream and a subtitle stream to be automatically selected based on the language preset information without need to user's selections. In addition, the DVD player is provided with a function that selects the next stream to be reproduced depending on the reproduction history and reproduction path of content besides the initial setting.
Next, the existing audio stream selection function based on the DVD video standard will be described in brief. As described above, with the DVD player apparatus, audio that is selected and reproduced by priority can be initially set. When the DVD player apparatus is used for example by a Japanese user, audio may be often initially set to “Japanese”. In this setting, when the DVD player apparatus reproduces for example an American movie or a French movie, as long as an audio stream of Japanese has been recorded, an audio stream of the Japanese dubbed version is automatically selected by priority.
In contrast, some users may want to listen to audio of the original language in which content was created. For example, it seems that users may want to watch movie content with audio of the original language in which the content was created and a subtitle of a translated version of user's mother language. For example, when the user who is Japanese watches movie content created in the United States, the movie content may be reproduced with audio of English as the original language in which the content was created and a subtitle of Japanese, which is a user's mother language. When the user watches content by selecting audio and language in such a manner, he or she can enjoy the content in an atmosphere close to the original.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2003-46951 discloses a reproducing apparatus having a mode of which a language of audio to be reproduced is selected and no subtitle is displayed, a mode of which a language of audio to be reproduced is set by default and a language of a subtitle is selected, and a mode of which languages of audio, a subtitle, and a menu are selected so that languages can be easily set.
However, the exiting DVD video standard does have a mechanism that denotes whether or not the language of a recorded audio stream is the original language in which content was created. Thus, the original language is not able to be automatically selected when content of a disc is reproduced. Consequently, whenever content is reproduced from a disc, as a problem of the related art, the user needs to change the setting of audio.
When content of other than Japanese (for example, French) as the original language is reproduced from a disc, the user needs to know the original language of content recorded on the disc with reference to the package or booklet attached to the disc. After the user knows the original language, he or she needs a time to press the language selection button of the player apparatus several times until the original language is selected.
In this case, when the priority language of audio to be reproduced is preset to French for example in the initial setting of the player apparatus, only when content is reproduced from the disc, audio of French is automatically selected. However, when content is reproduced from a disc whose original language is another language for example English, the user needs to change the initial setting of the player apparatus. Thus, the user feels very inconvenient.